IF EVER a boondoggle was worthy of Tea Partiers‘ pitchforks and torches, millions of dollars in possible taxpayer subsidies for a creationist theme park in Kentucky should be at the top of the list.

The Kentucky Tourism Development Finance Authority has given preliminary approval to as much as $43 million in tax incentives to help fund an attraction in Grant County based on the story of Noah’s ark in the Book of Genesis. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is an enthusiastic supporter of Ark Encounter, the 800-acre park that will tell the story of how men and dinosaurs coexisted less than 10,000 years ago, according to one interpretation of biblical texts.

Ark Encounter estimates that the park will generate 900 jobs and attract 1.9 million tourists a year. Taxpayers will be on the hook for 25 percent of the total cost, but only after the park has been built and has begun reaching its performance goals.

Even with this guarantee, expecting taxpayers to subsidize religious propaganda is absurd. Imagine the outrage that would have been generated if tax subsidies were approved for a Muslim or Hindu theme park.

Kentucky is the home of two self-described fiscal watchdogs, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen.-elect Rand Paul, a favorite of the Tea Party. These advocates of small government and tight spending have been uncharacteristically silent on this use of tax dollars.

Science education in Kentucky’s high schools could have used an infusion of $43 million. Instead, the people of that state will get an amusement park that shows humans, dinosaurs, and other animals living together on a wooden ship.

Ken Ham, the man behind the Creation Museum and the future Ark Encounter amusement park, has been disinvited from a homeschool convention in Cincinnati next week because he made “ungodly, and mean-spirited” comments about another speaker, according to the convention’s organizers.

Ham also will be excluded from future conventions, according to a statement by Brennan Dean of Great Homeschool Conventions.

“The board believes that Ken’s public criticism of the convention itself and other speakers at our convention require him to surrender the spiritual privilege of addressing our homeschool audience,” Dean said in the statement.

Ham is a founder of Answers in Genesis, which built the Creation Museum in Petersburg, an interactive series of exhibits on “young earth” beliefs, including ones that show humans interacting with dinosaurs. Ham is also spearheading attempts to build an amusement park with a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark, which will include dinosaurs on board. The project has won preliminary approval for up to $37 million in state tax incentives.

At issue are criticisms by Ham of Peter Enns of the Biologos Foundation, who has said the fall of Adam and Eve can be construed as a symbolic story of Israel’s beginnings, rather than a literal description of human beginnings.

On his blog and in other statements, Ham takes issue with this view and Enns’ homeschool curriculum.

“In fact,” Ham wrote in a recent blog post, “what he teaches about Genesis is not just compromising Genesis with evolution, it is outright liberal theology that totally undermines the authority of the Word of God.”

Ham was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. His publicist, Melany Ethridge of A. Larry Ross Communications in Dallas, referred the Herald-Leader to Ham’s Facebook page.

“Someone needs to stand against the compromise that is pouring into the church from many directions,” Ham wrote on the page. “… Because we publicly exposed one of their speakers and his curriculum because his beliefs clearly undermine the authority of Scripture, we apparently come under the heading of ‘anti-Christian’ in our actions.”